Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Galactic company is set to launch space flights within two years, has revealed dramatic plans for a space hotel and Star Trek-style space exploration project.

Speaking exclusively to Times Travel on his Caribbean hideaway island of Necker, the entrepreneur told of his hopes to launch a solar-powered craft travelling deep into space — with passengers buying a one-way ticket.

“A lovely project we’re looking at is to put a giant ship in space, whose sails will unfurl and it will head into the depths of space,” Branson told me as he reclined on a large, cream day-bed on the terrace of the Great House, his home on Necker.

As in the sci-fi TV series, the spaceship would search for other forms of life. An unmanned version would be sent first. Branson claims inspiration from the physicist Stephen Hawking, who hopes to go into space on Virgin Galactic: “He feels that there’s a danger that one day the Earth will be destroyed by global warming or a meteorite and he believes it is essential that we populate other planets,” said Branson.

But who would be willing to take a chance on life in space? “When I give talks, and ask how many people would be willing to go on board, there is always a small percentage of people who will,” Branson said. “It’s science-fiction stuff, it may not happen in my lifetime, but I bet you it happens in my children’s lifetime.” A project closer to fruition, he said, is the space hotel. “It will go round the Moon — it’s easier to build one that is not actually on the Moon’s surface. We believe we can programme a two-man spaceship, with a bubble on the top, so we can send you off from the hotel, programme you to be a few hundred feet above the Moon, and you will skim the Moon’s surface before going back into the hotel. We hope that this will happen in my lifetime.”

If this sounds fanciful, space buffs with $200,000 (£103,000) to spare are already signing up with Virgin Galactic. So far 200 people — including the actress Victoria Principal, film producer Bryan Singer and designer Philippe Starck — have paid up to guarantee they will be among the first space tourists when flights start in 2009.

Branson’s space tourism company has exclusively leased the rights to develop technology devised by American aircraft designer Burt Rutan, whose SpaceShipOne craft won the $10 million Ansari X Prize in October 2004 after becoming the first privately built vehicle to complete two space flights within two weeks.

Rutan is now leading the development of spaceships for Virgin Galactic from his base in the Mojave Desert, California, from where the first space tourism flights will take off. Later, flights will take off from a $225 million space base to be built in New Mexico, designed by Philippe Starck, Virgin Galactic’s creative director, and taking the form of a giant eye visible from space, and from Kiruna in Swedish Lapland, 60 miles (100km) north of the Arctic Circle (see page 24).

“The spaceships will be finished in 12 months, and will then go through 12 months of extensive tests, and then we will go up,” Branson said. He plans to take his parents, Eve and Ted, his wife Joan and children Holly and Sam on the first flight. Space tourists will require a medical test and three days of intensive training at the Mojave base.

Virgin Galactic passengers will qualify as astronauts, joining an elite group, currently fewer than 500 people worldwide. During their training, a group of up to 13 astronauts will go up in the “mothership”, which is about the size of a Boeing 757, to a height of 50,000ft, nearly ten miles above the Earth and roughly the height Concorde used to reach. From here, they will see the curvature of the Earth.

Attached to the mothership will be VSS Enterprise,the spaceship, which is about the size of a Falcon 900 private jet and will seat a further six passengers plus two crew. At 50,000ft this will detach from the mothership, switch on its rocket propellant system and shoot into space, reaching 2,500mph within 30 seconds. The craft will go to about 70 miles above the Earth, where the astronauts will experience weightlessness, before returning to Earth. The whole experience will take about two hours. The following day, those who experienced the mothership trip will in turn board VSS Enterprise. Virgin has ordered two motherships and five spaceships, and hopes to be able to carry at least 500 people a year once the programme starts.

But how can a businessman who speaks loudly and often about the environment — and who has just put up $25 million Virgin Earth Challenge prize money for an invention that removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere — square eco-concerns with developing a space programme, and with owning the airlines Virgin Atlantic and Australia-based Virgin Blue?

Branson claims the space-craft technology has a low-carbon impact and will help the development of more eco-friendly aircraft, which may use spaceship technology to reduce flying times dramatically. “The spaceships we are building are carbon fibre, they are almost completely environmentally benign,” he said. “They will be creating fewer CO² emissions to take people into space than a person travelling in economy uses to fly from London to New York.

“There’s a mass of scientific purpose to the programme. We will be able to launch satellites at a fraction of the current environmental cost, and the design will be a forerunner of aviation aircraft of the future.”

But Professor Stefaan Simons, director of the University College London Centre for CO² Technology, expressed reservations. “For example, if you use hydrogen to provide the thrust, this does not produce CO² - but to produce hydrogen on the ground creates CO². There are definitely environmental impacts of this space programme,” he said.

Branson’s team is now recruiting travel agency chains worldwide to sell space packages. Talks are soon to start with British agencies, raising the prospect that holidaymakers will see space holidays advertised next to brochures for Spain or Florida. Details: www.virgingalactic.com; www.scaled.com.

Expanding Virgin territory

Ambitious plans are being laid for Sir Richard Branson’s latest purchase, Moskito Island in the British Virgin Islands (BVIs), a mile and a half from his Necker home, which he bought last week for £10 million.

He plans a Balinese-style eco-resort on the 120-acre, wooded island, with houses built from sustainable materials and electric golf carts to ferry passengers. As a master of branding, Branson knows that the name Moskito — despite referring to the Moskito Indians who once lived here — is off-putting. Expect it to open in about two years’ time as Mojito.

Branson intends to make Moskito a showcase for similar developments worldwide — and he believes the wind and solar-power technology he plans for Moskito could help to turn the BVIs carbon-neutral.

“The exciting thing is that other islands and resorts in the BVIs have heard what we’re doing and want to work with us, and we’re now talking to the Government about whether we can make the BVIs the first carbon-neutral country in the world,” he said. “I think it can be done.”

Nick Rau, a spokesman for Friends of the Earth, gave these plans a qualified welcome, pointing out that the BVIs — with lots of sun and wind, little heavy industry and a small population — have good conditions for becoming carbon neutral. “This would certainly be a first. They have the wind and solar resources. And maybe what we need is individuals such as Branson taking the initiative.” However, he added that the BVIs would have to ensure that they neutralised the carbon emitted by aircraft flying to the country to qualify.

Moskito is not Branson’s only recent acquisition. His Virgin Limited Edition group, which includes Necker, Ulusaba in South Africa and Kasbah Tamadot in Morocco, will be joined by three properties opening later this year: a nine-bedroom chalet, The Lodge, in Verbier, Switzerland; a 100ft catamaran, Lady B, which will cruise the Caribbean; and Natirar, an 86-bedroom country estate and spa in New Jersey.

NEED TO KNOW

Necker Island (0800 716919, www.virgin.com/limitededition) costs from £23,557 a night, based on 28 sharing. You can also book “Celebration Weeks” when a mix of guests stay. In 2007, these are in October and prices start at £11,500 per couple per week. Prices include all meals, drinks and activities but not spa treatments or flights.

Cath Urquhart flew with Virgin Atlantic (0870 5747747, www.virgin atlantic.com); flights from Gatwick to Tortola, via Antigua, cost from £608, or from £3,306 in Upper Class.

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